Following a weight loss diet may seem like an intimidating project to undertake – there’s a lot to forsake – giving up on your favorite food, slogging out at the gym to name just a few, but in the end, people realize that just by eating right and not less, being active, and making tiny tweaks in their meals can bring about a major drop on the weighing scale. Especially during lunch time, you need to eat the right kind of food to prevent metabolism from slumping down so that you continue to burn calories through the day. Read about 6 Lunch Tweaks That Will Maximize Weight Loss Results. Also, to lose weight by eating the right kind of food, not less, do check the meal plans on the Rati Beauty diet.

1. Start with a Salad: Research says starting a meal with salad can help cut down calories in the following meal and prevent overeating. Having a salad would mean you would feel full with lesser amount of calories. Even a basic salad with cucumber, carrot, beetroot, would do the trick.
2. Try Water Preloading: Water preloading is a healthy and almost effortless way to aid weight loss. In this strategy, experts recommend to consume 500 ml of plain water half an hour before each meal (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Such a quantity of water before the meal will significantly stretch your tummy and as a result, there would be lesser release of the hunger hormone “ghrelin.” This means you would feel full with less food and fewer calorie intake. It is an effective strategy to tackle overeating. It’s a fact that most of us do not consume enough water through the day, and most of the times, we are just thirsty and not really hungry. Frequent hunger pangs are most probably caused due to dehydration and if you can provide your body with more H2O, you can lose weight rather effectively.
3. Cover Half of the Plate with Veggies: Full of nutrients, vitamins, fiber, protein, minerals, antioxidants – all vegetables, particularly spinach, broccoli, tomato, beans, peas, green leafy vegetables make you full with just a few calories on the plate. It’s the easiest way to feel full without having too many calories at lunch – cover half of your plate with vegetables.
4. Make Sure There’s one Protein Source in the Meal: It’s extremely important to include a protein source at every meal, even at lunch. It keeps you fuller for longer, keeps metabolism high, and burns more calories even at rest. You would also notice that there are no 4 pm hunger pangs anymore. Eggs, lentils, beans, tofu, paneer, chicken, fish are all good sources of protein, but here’s an additional list with “15 Food Sources of Lean Protein that Can Help with Weight Loss.”
5. Most importantly, chew your food slowly: In fact, this should be your mantra at every meal! Experts say that when you eat too fast, your brain doesn’t get the signal to stop once you are full. This means that most of the times we tend to overeat if we are not chewing the food properly. An interesting fact is that it takes about 20 minutes for the brain to send satiation signal, and when you eat too fast, you can miss that signal and continue to overeat. By slowing down, you can actually reach satiation point during the eating process itself and stop yourself from piling on extra pounds. Also, when you eat too fast, you take in a lot of air too while chewing and that can lead to bloating.
6. Craving for Something Meetha Post Lunch? Nibble on Chocolate: No, not the milk and sugary ones! Nibble on a piece of dark chocolate because it has healthy fats, polyphenols, antioxidants, minerals like copper, magnesium, potassium, all of which boost metabolism and help burn fat. But do make sure the dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa. Also read: “12 Ways Dark Chocolate can Help you Lose Weight.”

With these tiny tweaks, it’s possible to keep the metabolism high after lunch time so that your body torches up extra calories and stored fat.

12 Ways Dark Chocolate can Help you Lose Weight
15 Food Sources of Lean Protein that Can Help with Weight Loss